Jordanian serial entrepreneur pivots from selling gadgets to 3D printing his own

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Loay Malahmeh is becoming what he
never thought he would be – a serial entrepreneur. From
TickyTacky.me to 3Dmena, the Jordanian entrepreneur is creatively
tackling problems, and hoping to make a living in the process.

One of his favorite memories was when he ‘hired’ a second
employee. He recalls: “The site was growing quickly, and I needed a
customer service department. I bought a second phone and created
another email address to take care of customer service issues. I
named the customer service expert Hussam but it was really just
me.”

Malahmeh started to push TickTacky.me into new markets where he
was met with new challenges. "I wanted to scale it in the UAE, but
once I got there, I saw a lot of people burning tons of marketing
money in e-commerce. My conversion rate was especially bad because
I was in a niche market. I couldn’t just keep losing cash.”
Malahmeh returned to Jordan in April 2013 and started to phase out
his inventory.

His efforts were not in vain, however, because while in Dubai,
Malahmeh was inspired to find a different approach to e-commerce.
It was there that he stumbled upon 3D printing. Fascinated but
lacking the knowledge, Malahmeh started teaching himself everything
there was to know about 3D printing. In the process, he got back in
touch with Rakan Khamash, an old friend from university who was
“very well known in the animation and 3D art community.” Rakan has
won several awards in 3D modeling and Malahmeh calls him “a
brilliant 3D artist.”

The business and design duo put
together a new e-commerce platform called 3Dmena. Their aim is two-fold:
first, to make high quality 3D printing accessible to creators,
designers, and shoppers in the MENA region, or in Malahmeh’s words
“make ideas a reality.” Second, to use 3D printing to find
disruptive solutions to real problems.

With a big vision and a simple business plan, Malahmeh and
Khamash started pitching to investors. Malahmeh recalled, “At the
beginning, we were giving awful pitches, but after 40 pitches we
were really nailing it.”

One of the pitches was to Amman-based tech accelerator Oasis500
(where I help manage investments). Malahmeh had participated in
Wave 17 of an Oasis500 bootcamp the year prior, and was ready to
come back to pitch with a fresh idea. To everyone’s excitement,
Oasis500 decided to invest and 3Dmena joined the acceleration
program in August 2014.

3Dmena is still in its early stages, but the team continues to
expand its product offering and partnerships with 3D artists. “This
isn’t just a marketplace for gifts and gadgets – this is a whole
new way of solving problems,” explains Malahmeh. The team has
already helped develop 3D-printed prosthetics for amputees, which
have been printed and distributed to several organizations in
Jordan that serve handicapped patients.

Having moved on from one venture to another, Malahmeh reflects
on his journey as an entrepreneur: “When I could clearly see that
the TickyTacky model wasn’t going to scale, I iterated and learned
from my experience.”

Now with a community of 20 3D designers and access to 3D
printers in UAE, KSA, and Jordan, the 3Dmena team is poised to take
a chunk out of a $3 billion USD global market.

His one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs in the region:
“It’s not about building a startup – it’s about developing
solutions to real problems.”

Robert works with Oasis500 to fund and coach startups throughout the world. His work with entrepreneurs began at a venture seed fund in Utah and a tech startup in Silicon Valley. Stay in touch by following @robgcarroll or by subscribing to his weekly newsletter on JordanVC.com.